Chapter 194: Jo A-yeong meets Wheat

One day in 2027.

“Baek-seol, that…!”

Baek-seol refused to renew her contract and ran away.

Of course, using the term “ran away” for a Vtuber who had fulfilled her contract period and graduated was a bit much, but…

“Kyaaaaah!”

Hayoon screamed and wailed alone in her room.

Graduation was a legitimate process, legally sound, but wasn’t it okay for Hayoon, the CEO, to feel a little hurt?

“I did so much for her! She could have at least renewed her contract! That evil!”

At first, it was a 50/50 split.

They started with the standard for Vtuber agencies, but gradually increased the ratio, and now all four original members of BGG Company were on a 80/20 split.

This was slightly more than what typical MCNs offered, and it was top-tier treatment in the Vtuber agency world.

Besides, the main pillars of BGG Company were Hong Seo-hyun and Seo Ji-woo. Baek-seol, whose growth had plateaued at a decent mid-tier level, had the audacity to refuse a renewal offer to debut as an indie Vtuber!

“She betrays me? I fed her and gave her a place to sleep… well, not really… but I helped her earn money, drew for her, bought songs for her, I did so much for her!”

Hayoon was genuinely hurt.

Baek-seol herself might feel aggrieved, but Hayoon had treated Baek-seol well.

It was just that when advertising events came in for her key personnel, Hong Seo-hyun and Seo Ji-woo, ten times, Baek-seol only got about seven.

But still, getting seven was something, wasn’t it?

“Me? Huh? Do you know how hard it was for me to get those ads while dealing with those lecherous old geezers who looked down on me because I’m a CEO in my 20s? Huh? Eek…!”

Hayoon felt wronged.

Besides, Hong Seo-hyun and Seo Ji-woo were big enough on their own that they didn’t really need to look for ads.

In contrast, Baek-seol’s individual stream size was smaller, so she received fewer ad offers.

That’s why when ads came in for Hong Seo-hyun or Seo Ji-woo, Hayoon would direct the trickle-down to Baek-seol to keep her afloat.

“Th-this,…! Seriously…! Even Jo A-yeong, who gets ₩1 million donations just for turning on her hand-cam, quietly renewed her contract, so why only you…!”

Hayoon wanted to keep the original members for as long as possible.

That’s why she had unhesitatingly treated the original members to restaurant dinners and even taken them to overseas showcases.

She had truly done her best to nurture them, and even if the 2nd generation debutantes’ performance was a bit sluggish, as long as the original members were solid, Hayoon’s mentality would have held firm. But…

“Nghaaaa…”

With Baek-seol refusing to renew and even graduating, Hayoon’s mentality couldn’t hold up.

She could only curl up in a corner of her room and feel depressed, a fragile CEO and illustrator in her late twenties.

“That
…”

Hayoon cursed Baek-seol and wiped away her tears.

She had really done her best to keep her, offering all sorts of conditions, but she had stubbornly left to pursue her own activities.

“I should just treat the ones who are still here better…”

Forget the child who left home, and focus on the ones who remained.

That way, the 2nd generation members wouldn’t dare think of going indie either.

She would hold onto all of them.

BGG Company in 2027.

The biggest change, if any, was that the owner of the Igloo had changed.

Hayoon had debuted a 2nd generation virtual idol group for BGG Company called “Mirage.”

There were five members in total. As the number of members increased, she had removed Hayoon and Choi Arin’s workspace and added more soundproof booths, creating an environment where all five could come and stream whenever they were comfortable.

In return, she had moved the original members out of Hayoon and Choi Arin’s workspace and into a larger two-room villa. She had created a more comfortable environment for them.

At that time, Hayoon thought the Trinity + Scarlet combination would last forever.

“But it didn’t!”

It didn’t.

Baek-seol had already left.

Although Hong Seo-hyun, Seo Ji-woo, and Jo A-yeong’s contract renewals were complete, she was still anxious.

So Hayoon started meeting with the 2nd generation members, whose stream growth was slow, giving them gifts and treating them to delicious meals at restaurants.

The 2nd generation members had little on-stream interaction with Hayoon, but since Hayoon was young, they quickly became friends on a personal level, allowing her to build rapport easily.

With their similar ages providing a baseline of camaraderie, she added gift offensives to win their favor.

The 2nd generation’s contract renewal season was still a while away, but Hayoon was managing their loyalty in advance.

“That evil Baek-seol…!”

However, the original members were a bit different.

Especially Jo A-yeong, who was five years older than Hayoon and born in ’99. Now in her late twenties, she was one of the people Hayoon relied on the most.

Hong Seo-hyun and Choi Arin were also older, but the age gap wasn’t as large, and perhaps because she had known them since high school, it was difficult to rely on them in the same way.

Jo A-yeong, with her big-sister vibe, was the person Hayoon could comfortably vent to.

“Yeah, so that happened?”

“Uh, uhhh…”

Jo A-yeong, who was used to this kind of whining from her days as an accountant at a small company, grilled pork belly, made wraps, and occasionally empathized with Hayoon.

“Here, ah. You must be hungry.”

“Yeah, unnie…”

There’s a saying, “maintenance cost for a large build.”

It’s a phrase often used for people with large builds, but surprisingly, it also applied to people like Jo A-yeong.

Since breasts are primarily fat, if one eats less, the breasts naturally get smaller.

Jo A-yeong, while listening to Hayoon’s complaints, was eating free meat and occasionally making wraps for her, getting the necessary calories to maintain her I-cup bust.

“But, it’s probably not like Seol-i left because she disliked you. When you do ASMR in an agency, there are some restrictions on the content, right?”

“I lifted all the restrictions on the content. I told her to do whatever she wants and even drew pictures for her every time.”

“The control over the YouTube channel…”

“I even assigned an editor to her.”

“Maybe she just wanted to do it comfortably on her own… um, uh…”

“Hwaaaaah.”

Jo A-yeong tried her best to defend Baek-seol.

They were both on the older side at BGG Company, so they had a good understanding of each other.

Jo A-yeong and Baek-seol were known as the “Unnie-z,” while Hong Seo-hyun and Seo Ji-woo were the “Maknae-z.”

She considered their friendship, and also, she was trying to apply the brakes, worried that rumors might spread about the CEO badmouthing a departed member.

“It’s understandable to be upset…?”

“Right? I’m upset… She could have at least renewed for a year! Ugh…”

The more she heard the story, the more regrettable Baek-seol’s choice seemed.

Hayoon had always done her best for her agency’s Vtubers.

Just for Jo A-yeong alone, when she had asked for a good bed since they were removing the illustrators’ workspace from Igloo 2, Hayoon had unhesitatingly bought her a queen-sized bed with her own money.

‘It’s really a shame… Was Seol-i the self-made type? I didn’t know that…’

There was no denying Hayoon’s devotion. It was understandable that she would be upset when she left as soon as her contract ended.

“I can’t. I have to drink today…”

In the end, Hayoon did something she shouldn’t have.

She had come here today to treat Jo A-yeong to meat and win her favor, but now, instead of winning favor, she was drinking alcohol and seeking comfort?

This wasn’t winning favor; it was receiving it.

However, Hayoon, who had received a significant shock from Baek-seol’s FA declaration, couldn’t help but be mentally shaken.

And with Jo A-yeong listening to her complaints and even feeding her meat wraps, she couldn’t help but let her guard down.

“Do you want some too, unnie? You’re good at mixing somaek.”

“I’m fine. Do you want to drink since you’re having a hard time?”

“Uh, uh, mix me one. Somaek. Hehe…”

“Yeah, you’re having a really hard time…”

And Jo A-yeong.

Seeing the visibly shaken Hayoon, she couldn’t help but sigh.

Ever since her first interview, Jo A-yeong had always been led by Hayoon’s flow, only receiving benefits.

Now, that same Hayoon was begging Jo A-yeong to mix her a somaek. It was a pitiful sight.

“There’s the ‘about to throw up’ level, the ‘just black out’ level, and the ‘pleasantly tipsy’ level. Which stage should I mix it to?”

She looked at Hayoon with pity and began to open a beer bottle and a soju bottle.

The intensity Hayoon chose was the level where she would just cleanly black out.

While Hayoon stared blankly at the sky, her mind gone, Jo A-yeong filled half a beer glass with soju and the other half with beer.

It was a somaek that looked more white than yellow, but in reality, though the stages were different, the ratio of somaek during Jo A-yeong’s small company accountant days was always fixed at this level.

Since Hayoon seemed to be having a hard time, Jo A-yeong had made her a special small-company somaek to send her off properly.

And as she intended, Hayoon completely blacked out and was gone.